East London oasis

by Beccy Smart Photography

Walking into Tracey and Lawrence’s house you immediately feel their sophisticated yet accessible sense of style.

Calming colours, such as the guacamole shade of paint used in the living room, provide an ideal backdrop to dramatic furniture pieces and design.

Originally from Canada, they bought their house in 1999, and set to work shaping it to how they wanted it, “Lawrence being an architect naturally wanted to put his stamp on it”.

They were drawn to London for the dense urban experience, however they also see their garden as “one of their most important spaces”, they find it the much needed and loved retreat. Especially so since installing a hot tub!

Back to the house, they wanted to retain the character and structure of the Victorian period terrace, and the original features that it still had, but they also wanted to open up some of the spaces, making the home more fluid and a “contemporary comment on a Victorian terrace”.

They achieved this by retaining the separate front reception rooms, and opening up the kitchen and hall space together, removing the dividing door, and designing handmade 'floating' stairs, “the focus is on a central organisation, structured by the staircase as it moves through the house – the idea being to ascend to the top of the house and reach the sky. As you move vertically, the concept is that you become both more private and expressive.”

The design of the house gets more contemporary the higher you get. Their plan is to build a self designed glass roof box, over their current attic space they are converting “to give the feeling of being in the sky”. It will be a discreet place to be, not overlooked, yet with good views.

They plan to use this new space as an elevated work environment, freeing up the more formal reception rooms on the ground floor.